The blind comic tearing down barriers

On a small stage in Tulkarm, a city in the north of the occupied West Bank, Sherihan El Hadwa emerges from the wings to a Palestinian pop song. Dancing and waving the long white cane she uses to navigate the world, the visually impaired comedian already has her audience laughing and clapping along to the music.

Hadwa did not have an obvious route into standup comedy, and the many difficulties of life as a disabled woman in the Palestinian territories are not, on the face it, funny.

But in her mostly autobiographical debut show, No Cherie, Hadwa challenges lazy narratives about victimhood – and has won fans and accolades all over Palestine in the process.

Jokes and anecdotes mainly focus on the absurdities of getting around Palestinian society as a blind person: everything from the awkwardness of flirting with strangers helping her cross pothole-filled roads, to having to attend a medical evaluation with doctors once a year to “prove that I still can’t see them”.

Paired with a sardonic, almost cynical delivery, Hadwa’s comedy has bite: righteous anger simmers beneath every bit, fuelling her act with a compelling power.

“I’m not looking for sympathy. I think sometimes audiences are surprised to encounter a blind woman who is as honest as me. That’s part of the fun,” the 35-year-old said. “I like surprising people and opening their horizons. Laughter has helped me; it helps everyone.”

Hadwa became blind suddenly, at the age of 16, after contracting a virus that damaged the retina and optic nerve. The shock of losing her sight led to a difficult period of re-adjustment, and the comedian said she spent years grieving for a different future.

Hadwa got involved with a theatre group in Bethlehem in 2013, but did not branch out into comedy until last year. Writing the show with the help of fellow comedian Manal Awad, she realised that humour was a tool for framing her life experiences in a new way and exploring a different kind of performance.

Supported by Bethlehem’s Al-Hara theatre and the Drosos Foundation, a Swiss funding body, Hadwa is touring the West Bank, doing a show most weekends and kicking off a short European leg with a show in Amsterdam.

“My day job is basically the opposite of this, answering phones at a hospital in Bethlehem,” Hadwa said, as she prepared for the show in Tulkarm. “If I’d realised before I was this funny and talented, I definitely wouldn’t still be doing that.”

Standup is a new form of entertainment in the Palestinian territories. Performers have realised audiences are receptive to comedy mined from hardship: Israeli checkpoint searches, restrictions on movement, violence, poverty and politics are all fair game.

When No Cherie’s run ends, Hadwa is planning to get back to writing. “I love doing this. It’s nice to make people laugh and bond over what makes us the same and what makes us different,” she said. “I am happy to be an example that disabled people aren’t helpless. We are just as capable as anyone else and we can do things on our own terms.”

‘It’s nice to make people laugh and bond over what makes us the same’